Health Scan Lifestyle Q&A

Alan Gilsenan, film-maker and writer

Do you think you have a healthy lifestyle?

Reasonably healthy, although it does waver a bit with the vagaries of work and travel. Film-making and healthy living often seem irreconcilable, so there can be something cyclical to it all. Occasionally, I determine not to let filming get in the way of exercise and good diet and end up doing ludicrous things. Recently, while filming in New York, I found myself running around the deserted streets of Manhattan at 5am ahead of a day’s work and thinking to myself “this really is ridiculous”.

How often do you exercise?

I try to get out about five times a week, mostly running in the hills with the dogs near where we live in Wicklow. Some cycling on occasion, and weights if I can. Many years ago, I competed in athletics and we would always train six days out of seven, sometimes twice a day. Recently, I’ve re-joined my old athletics club, Crusaders AC, and am savouring that sense of invigoration that one gets even watching others warm up at the track, so I hope that may inspire me to a little more consistency.

Do you get your five a day?

Yes. But this is mainly due to my wife’s diligence. She is instinctively far more healthy than I, so I benefit hugely by association. I enjoy berries and seeds in the morning with porridge, but would happily reach for strong black coffee and dark chocolate at every opportunity after that, so it’s great that I’m kept on the straight and narrow by the family diet.

Do you worry?

Not particularly. Film-making is stressful by nature, so you develop a means of working through it all relatively calmly. I’ve come to realise whatever the crisis, the deadline, the pressure, it does pass and six months down the road you can’t even remember what the fuss was about. Generally, whatever the worries, I sleep very soundly and that, I think, is a real blessing health-wise.

What do you do to relax?

Well, as I mentioned already, running with dogs in the Wicklow hills is wonderful. The sense of nature is all around you. But also listening to music as I run. There’s something about physical exercise that really seems to intensify your experience of music of all kinds. But, otherwise, I love to read or just relax. Watch a rugby watch. Do nothing ideally, though that isn’t often.

What’s your unhealthiest habit?

Doing too much at the one time. The aforementioned coffee and chocolate . . . though I always reckon that as vices you could be doing worse things, like going to the pub. Though, come to think of it, a nice creamy pint of Guinness sounds good. Think of all that mythical iron and vitamin B. It must be good for you . . .